DISSERTATION IV.

ON THE FAITH OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

1. GOD is at once the principal and the ultimate object of faith; "Ye believe in God,"a said our Lord to his disciples; and says the Apostle Peter,-" who by Him," that is, Christ, "do believe in God."b Believ ers consider God as the self-existent, uncreated truth,* on whom they may rely with the greatest safety; and as the supreme felicity, united to whom by faith, they may become inexpressibly happy. The Creed, accordingly, begins with these words, I BELIEVE IN GOD.

II. Many have supposed that these three phrases, Credere Deum, to believe God, credere Deo, to believe God, and credere in Deum, to believe in God, ought to be thus distinguished; that the first means, to be persuaded of his existence; the second, to give credit

* Αυτο αληθεια.

The reader will observe that Deum is the accusative, or objective, and Deo the dative case, of the Latin word Deus, God: but if credere is rendered to believe, the English idiom requires us to translate credere Deo, as well as credere Deum, to believe God. We may say, to give credit to God; but we cannot say, to believe to him. T. ‡ Existentia, or, as Macrobius expresses it, extantia.

to God when he testifies any thing; the third, to rely upon God with a saving confidence of soul.

III. But as this distinction has no foundation in the Scriptures, so it takes its rise from total ignorance of the Hebrew idiom. The expression Credere Deum, to believe God, no where occurs in holy writ. Paul says, "he that cometh unto God, must believe that he is: and in Deum credere, to believe in God, is a Hebraism, contrary to the ancient purity both of the Greek and the Latin tongue.-The Hebrews use indifferently,, or, in connexion with ; as in the

Then believed they his * ויאמינו בדבריו expression They believed not » לא האמינו לדברו,words,d and

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his word." This Hebraism, in common with many others, was imitated by the Hellenists, 22 and by the saered writers of the New Testament. Let the following instance suffice. In John viii. 30. it is said, wo^^06 ¿tiotevoαv ’eis aútov, "many believed on him ;" and verse 31. the same persons are called πεπιστευκότας αὐτω, "those who believed him." Hence it appears that they are greatly mistaken, who assert that the expression to believe in one, signifies that devout affection of mind which is an homage due to God alone; for it is ex

and believed * ויאמינו ביהוה ובמשה עבדו,pressly said

(in) the LORD, and (in) his servant Moses." Those, also, are mistaken, who suppose that the phrase to believe in God or in Christ, is always descriptive of a living faith; since it is said of the Ninevites that they believed in God, and of the Jews, that they "believed in his," to wit, Christ's "name," to whom "Jesus did

c Heb. xi. 6.
f Exod. xiv. 31.

e Ver. 24.

d Ps. cvi. 12.
See also 2 Chron. xx. 20.

.5 .Jon. iii זיא מיבן באלהים 8

22 See NOTE XXII.

not commit himself;"-whilst, on the contrary, a different expression is made use of, to denote a living and saving faith, in John v. 24. πιστευων τω πέμψαντι με, "he that believeth him that sent me ;" and in the account of the Jailor, TETIσTEURS TO DE, "who believed God," both phrases are used indiscriminately.*

IV. When we speak of GOD, we understand a Being who is infinitely perfect, since he is the Creator and Lord of all other beings. This is the idea common to all nations, which they express, each in their own language, whenever they make mention of God. Now, in order to a man's believing in God, it is necessary, first of all, that he be firmly persuaded in his mind that such an infinitely perfect Being doth really exist. "For he that cometh unto God, must believe that he is." But, since this persuasion lays a foundation for itself in NATURE, upon which GRACE rears the superstructure of Divine revelation, it will be proper to see, first, what nature can teach us on this topic, and then, what the Christian faith superadds to the persuasion derived from nature.

v. The existence of God is so necessary and so evident a truth, that to one rightly attending to the subject, scarcely any thing can appear more certain, more obvious, or more manifest. It is clear even from that notion of a Deity which is common to all nations. Whoever speaks of God, speaks of a Being infinitely perfect. Such a Being, however, cannot even be conceived of in thought, without including in our conception the necessity of his existence. For, since it is

• See the learned observations of Gomar on John ii. 23. xiii. 42. John ii. 23, 24. i Acts xvi. 31, 34.

a greater perfection to exist than not to exist; to exist necessarily than to exist contingently and according to the pleasure of another; to exist from eternity and to eternity, than to exist at one time and not to exist at another time :-it follows that existence, even a necessary and eternal existence, is implied in the essence of a most perfect Being. It is as impossible to form an idea of a most perfect Being without necessary existence, as an idea of a mountain without a valley.

Besides, the man who denies that there is a God, denies, at the same time, that it is possible for an absolutely perfect and eternal Being to exist. For if he at any time begin to exist, he will not be eternal, and therefore not absolutely perfect, and consequently not God. But it is impossible that a being who neither is, nor can begin to be, can ever exist. According to this supposition, then, the impossibility of existence will be included in the conception of a Deity; which is no less contradictory, than if one should say, that the want of eminent perfection is necessarily included in the conception of that which is infinitely perfect.23

VI. The Creator has so deeply impressed the idea of his own existence on the human mind, that all may receive this knowledge from nature. "That which may "be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath "showed it unto them." This is what is usually termed the innate knowledge of God. Eusebius speaks, not improperly, of the "notions which every "one learns from himself, or rather from God."* It is not intended, that infants possess an actual know

* Αυτοδιδακτές έννοιας, μαλλον δε Θεοδίδακτος. Ρraparat. Evang. lib. ii. c. 5.

* To yvworov tõ O. Rom. i. 19.

25 See NOTE XXIII.

ledge of God even from the womb; which is equally contrary to universal experience, and to the word of God, which testifies that they "cannot discern between their right hand and their left." Nor is the above expression to be so loosely understood, as if God merely endowed men with a capacity of knowing himself, provided the proofs of his existence be clearly proposed and set before them, or provided every one make a right use of his capacity in the investigation of those proofs; -as if the knowledge of God's existence could not be attained without laborious exertion. But we intend, that God has so deeply impressed the traces of himself upon the innermost parts of the mind, that man, after having arrived at the use of reason, cannot but often think of a God, and it is only by doing violence to himself that he can expel such thoughts from his breast.

VII. Maximus Tyrius, the Platonic philosopher, has the following beautiful sentence in his first Dissertation.* "But if, since the beginning of time, two or "three men have existed, that have lived in an atheis

tical, degraded and senseless state, deceived by their "own eyes and ears, maimed in their very soul,-a "brutish and unprofitable kind of men, no less desti"tute of the distinguishing glory of their species, than "a lion without courage, an ox without horns, or a bird "without wings;-from even these men you will learn "something concerning a Deity; for, in spite of them"selves, they both know and express something on this "subject." Julian, too, ungodly as he was, expresses himself equally well, as follows: "All of us, previously

* Dissert. i. cujus inscriptio est, Quid sit Deus secundum Platonem ? Jonah iv. 11.